Bleach: Attack of the Devoradores
by hitsugaya95
Summary: Karin needs to master her Soul Reaper powers to save Ichigo from a mysterious illness. I know the first few chapters are short. I'm trying to make them longer. :3
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Captain of the Tenth Squad, Toshiro Hitsugaya, strolled through the woods, shoulders relaxed, muscles slack, looking completely at ease. In reality, Toshiro's senses were on high alert: his eyes searched everywhere for any sign of movement. His ears strained to catch the slightest rustling in the undergrowth.

Normally, this small forest would have been bustling with life, but not today. Today, it was dead quiet. Not a single woodland creature was to be seen, and it gave Toshiro the chills. The young Captain smirked at the irony. He dropped the expression before Matsumoto or any of his other subordinates saw it.

The stretch of woodland Toshiro and his three-man team were patrolling was located just outside Karakura town and would normally be under Ichigo Kurosaki's jurisdiction. However, Ichigo had recently run into a bout of food poisoning. Naturally, as soon as Ichigo was incapacitated, Hollow activity in and around Karakura Town had skyrocketed.

Chad had run into a Hollow and managed to run it off, but it had escaped him in the woods. Now Toshiro and his team were tromping around looking for it.

Toshiro signaled his men to stop as he came to a large, well-lit clearing. There were about twenty kids playing soccer, with teams of ten or so. The children looked to be about 13 and were shouting taunts and encouragement as they ran up and down the field in pursuit of the monochromatic ball. Toshiro recognized Ichigo's younger sister Karin playing the goalie position. Karin caught the ball as it flew towards her face. Toshiro swore under his breath. If he didn't stop the Hollow before it found these kids, they would all die!


	2. Chapter 2

Karin's eyes followed the ball intently, her body tense and ready to spring into action. One of her teammates was making steady progress toward the other goal, but was intercepted by two other players, who managed to take the ball from him and were soon making progress of their own toward Karin. With a powerful kick, one of them sent the ball sailing toward her. Karin caught the ball with an outstretched hand. The ball landed in her hand with the satisfying sound of rubber on skin.

As Karin readied herself to toss the ball back into play, she felt a pulse of dark reiatsu. A Hollow? Now, of all times? Karin swore. She glanced around, doing her best not to look terrified. Surely the Soul Society would notice a Hollow this strong?

Without warning the Hollow struck. It was vaguely simian in appearance, standing on it's hind legs, using its front arms to snatch up a player, who, of course being a totally normal human child, couldn't see it. The young boy gave a startled cry, and soon all the children were in a complete panic. Acting purely on instinct, Karin kicked the ball with all her might.

The ball flew through the air towards the Hollow, glowing a bright red. It struck the Hollow square in the face, cracking its sneering, skeletal mask. "How do you like that, you ugly son of a…" Karin trailed off as the Hollow leveled a cold, soulless glare at her.

"You're going to pay for that you insignificant worm!" The Hollow launched itself at Karin, extending a clawed hand to strike her down.


	3. Chapter 3

Toshiro was about to throw himself into the fray when Karin kicked the soccer ball. He watched, stunned, the ball, glowing with Karin's reiatsu, struck the Hollow full in the face. Its mask cracked with a resounding pop, and the ball fell to the ground, smoking.

Now, as the Hollow, moved to rip Karin's throat out, Toshiro leapt forward. Hyorinmaru bit into flesh and severed one of the Hollow's foot-long fingers. "What was that about insignificance?" Toshiro snarled. "Your Reiatsu is pretty weak for such big talk."

The Hollow took a wild swipe at Toshiro, who easily sidestepped the blow. He struck the Hollow with the flat of Hyorinmaru's blade. Although the attack hadn't been meant to cut, it had enough force to send the Hollow sprawling in the grass.

Toshiro's voice rang with righteous anger as he called to the Hollow "You're not so tough now that you're dealing with someone who can fight back, are you, coward?" Toshiro Flash-stepped forward and stuck Hyorinmaru hilt-deep into the Hollow's mask, ending his existence. Toshiro sheathed his blade, shaking with fury even after the death of his enemy. His stupidity had almost gotten a human child killed. He silently berated himself.

"Captain Hitsugaya?" Matsumoto tentatively touched the Captain's shoulder. "Are you alright?" Toshiro spun around, his hand going to Hyorinmaru's hilt, his eyes burning with a cold anger. The anger died quickly when he saw Matsumoto's face.

"Fine," he said curtly. "Just got a little carried away, is all." Matsumoto hesitated for a fraction of a second before nodding. Toshiro glanced at Karin, who was approaching nervously. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

Karin nodded and said "Thanks to you. I don't think I could have taken that thing." Karin looked at Toshiro for a moment and smiled. "Thanks again, Captain-sama. I'm gonna go tell Ichi-nii-san what happened. Don't get killed, okay?"

"Okay…" Toshiro watched with a puzzled expression as the young human bounded away. He cracked a rare grin at her play on words. "Ichi-nii-san… That's clever." Toshiro turned to his team, who had watched the incident wordlessly. "Spread out and search the area. Hollows that weak rarely work alone."

The team, including Matsumoto yelled "Yes sir!" and were off.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Karin set off for the Kurosaki family's house/ health clinic at a brisk jog. No need to hurry now; the Hollow was defeated. She made it home in about fifteen minutes. Karin noticed that there was no yelling going on inside and figured that her father, Isshin, was either eating, sleeping, or not there.

Karin entered the house and saw Yuzu doing her homework in the living room. "Hi, Karin-chan!" Yuzu greeted her cheerily.

"Hey, Yuzu," Karin replied brusquely. "Where's Ichigo? I need to talk to him."

Yuzu shrugged. "I'm not sure, but probably in his room or in the kitchen getting a snack." Karin decided that Ichigo's room would be as good a starting point as any.

As she approached Ichigo's door, Karin heard a heated discussion coming from the other side. _Guess Ichigo and Rukia are at it again, _Karin thought. Shaking her head, Karin knocked, received no answer, and opened the door herself. She saw Ichigo and Rukia in their Soul Reaper forms, leaving Mod Souls to take care of their bodies.

Rukia had Ichigo in a painful-looking martial arts hold and yelling in his ear. "You'll get yourself killed, you Neanderthal. You have no idea how many or how strong those Hollows out there are!"

"Better me than Karin!" Ichigo replied hotly. Then he and Rukia noticed Karin watching them with a bemused expression. "Karin!" Ichigo exclaimed with obvious relief. "Thank God you're not hurt." He hugged his little sister tightly

Karin rolled her eyes at Rukia around Ichigo's hug and said "Try thanking that short Captain guy. He's the one who saved my life and killed that Hollow." As he released Karin, Rukia shot Ichigo an I-told-you-so look.

"Now," Rukia snapped "Will you get back in your damn body already? We have no idea how this illness could affect your body with you not in it."

Ichigo looked like he wanted to continue arguing, but he nodded and grumbled something about women. Once back in his body, Ichigo was eager to get the details of Karin's run-in with the Hollow. Karin explained to him and Rukia about the Hollow's sudden appearance, which neither seemed surprised by; apparently they had both sensed the Hollow's Reiatsu, but Rukia had forced Ichigo to stay behind due to Ichigo's bout of food poisoning. As Rukia explained, "I wasn't worried because I knew the Soul Society had assigned Squad 10 to temporarily replace Ichigo until he feels better."

Then Karin told them about her using the soccer ball to crack the Hollow's mask. "That's strange," Rukia muttered when Karin had finished her tale. "It almost sounds as though you used a Kido."

"Is that even possible?" Ichigo asked. "I mean, if she's not a Soul Reaper, Karin couldn't possibly even know the basic principle of a Kido, much less use one, right?" Rukia shrugged.

"I'm honestly not sure. Look at who her father is. Look at her brother." Rukia looked meaningfully at Ichigo as she said this. "It's completely feasible that Karin may have inherited some Soul Reaper powers, just like you, Ichigo."

"Will you two stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Karin scowled. Rukia and Ichigo fell silent and looked at the floor apologetically. "Now, Rukia, would you please tell me just what in the hell this Kido thing is?"

Rukia tapped her finger against her lower lip thoughtfully. "Basically," Rukia began, and Ichigo tuned out as she entered lecture mode. Not surprisingly, Rukia whipped out her little sketchbook and illustrated some idiotic bunny things as she explained. "a Kido is like a spell that a Soul Reaper can cast. Some are offensive, some are defensive, and some restrict an enemy's movements.

"Some Kidos are weak and others are strong. Regardless of the power level of a Kido, it has an incantation. Most Kidos don't require an incantation to cast, but it increases the strength of the Kido being used if the caster chants the incantation. Each Kido is a number, which typically denominates its power level. For instance, Kido number 90 is much stronger than Kido number 43 and 43 is stronger than number 20. Does that clear things up a little? Rukia flipped her sketchbook shut with a snap.

Karin's brow was furrowed. "Yeah, I think I got it. Does this mean I could learn to use Kido as a way to defend myself against Hollows?" Karin's eyes burned with a desire to destroy any that would stand in her way. Ichigo involuntarily took a small step back from his manic-looking sister.

After a silent moment of thought, Rukia replied, "I'm not sure. What you did with that ball today could have been just a fluke. We should go see Kisuke Urahara and Tessai about this."

Karin beamed. "Great!" She exclaimed. "When can we go?" Before Rukia had time to answer, Karin blurted "How about tomorrow after school?" Rukia shook her head. "Sorry," she said, "We need to wait until Ichigo's feeling better. He should be there when we talk to Urahara-san."

Karin nodded pensively. "You're right. I'll nurse him back to health in no time!" Ichigo rolled his eyes and murmured "Oh, brother." to himself. Karin ran off to make her big brother a sandwich and some soup.


End file.
